Benin City, Nigeria – The Executive Director of Center for Bioethics and Research (CBR), Prof. Clement Adebamowo has identified lack of government commitment to health research ethics, as a major factor affecting the health system in Nigeria.
Prof. Adebamowo made this known in Benin City while commenting on the deepening research ethics in Nigeria (DREIN) project put together by a consortium consisting of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Center for Bioethics and Research (CBR), National Health Research Ethics Committee of Nigeria (NHREC) and Council of Health Research Ethics Development (COHRED)
His words: “lack of government commitment to health research ethics leads to inadequate facilities and infrastructure, limited infrastructure, limited resources, little or no policies and significant brain drain in the medical field”. He therefore called on the Nigerian government to show more commitment on research ethics.
On the DREIN project, Prof. Adebamowo said it was aimed at improving the capacity of Research Ethics Committee in Nigeria in order to implement standardized and efficient review of research and clinical trials protocols through increasing utilization of electronic ethics review platform – RHInnO Ethics which was developed by COHRED and “is being implemented by ethics committees in Africa.”
He said the DREIN project was linked to the Federal Ministry of Health through the National Health Research Ethics Committee of Nigeria (NHREC) which is a subsidiary of the Federal Ministry of Health.
“The NHREC is the regulatory body for all Health Research Ethics Committees (HREC) in Nigeria and it is responsible for the establishment of HRECs and protection of human subjects involved in all clinical trials protocols.
“The DREIN project aims to enhance interactions between the Nigeria research ethics regulatory agency, NHREC, and the drugs regulatory agency, NAFDAC, through joint meetings, trainings, seminars and workshops with institutional research ethics committees.”
